© 2016 The Texas Lawbook.
By Brooks Igo
(June 22) – Houston’s oldest law school announced today that it is changing its name in an effort to honor its birthplace and boost its regional and national profile.
South Texas College of Law, which was founded in downtown Houston in 1923, will now be called the Houston College of Law. Dean Donald Guter said an ad-hoc committee made up of alumni, faculty, sitting judges and board members worked with SimpsonScarborough, a higher education consultancy, to decide on the new name.
“We really needed to get Houston in our name because this is our heritage,” said Guter, who has served as president and dean of the law school for nearly 10 years. “We are located in the fourth largest city in the country and we weren’t taking advantage of it.”
Leaders of the law school wanted a name that better represented the school’s downtown location.
“Our students are within walking distance of some of the nation’s biggest law firms and the city’s courthouses are in our backyard,” J. Ken Johnson, chairman of the Houston College of Law’s board of directors, said in a statement.
The nearly-100-year-old law school has produced a number of prominent alumni, including Richard Anderson, chairman and former CEO of Delta Airlines; Robert Cohen, executive vice president of legal affairs for 20th Century Fox; and Supreme Court of Texas Justice Eva Guzman.
Alumni can order their Houston College of Law diplomas beginning Nov. 1. You can learn more about the law school’s decision to change its name here: http://www.stcl.edu/name/.
© 2016 The Texas Lawbook. Content of The Texas Lawbook is controlled and protected by specific licensing agreements with our subscribers and under federal copyright laws. Any distribution of this content without the consent of The Texas Lawbook is prohibited.
If you see any inaccuracy in any article in The Texas Lawbook, please contact us. Our goal is content that is 100% true and accurate. Thank you.